Syracuse, N.Y. — Talib Zanna said there was no in-game directive from Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon. The Panthers, said Zanna, are so dedicated, so focused on rebounding during every practice, there is no need to underscore the importance of the task.

"He always tells us to rebound. That's all we do," said Zanna, the 6-foot-9 Pittsburgh forward. "In practice, we do box-out drills. We just know how to rebound. (We) kept crashing and crashing."

Did they ever.

Pittsburgh lost to Syracuse, 59-54, Saturday in the Carrier Dome. The Panthers permitted the Orange to shoot 60 percent in the second half and 51 percent for the game. They made just 38 percent of their own shots. And they missed 10 of their 23 free throws.

But the Panthers hung with the Orange because of their work on the backboards. Pittsburgh outboarded an accomplished Syracuse rebounding team 35-24. If that statistic wasn't bad enough, consider this:

The Panthers outscored the Orange 19-2 in second-chance points.

"We finally took away (Pitt forward Lamar) Patterson, we forced them to take the shots we wanted to," SU coach Jim Boeheim said, "and they got it back. This is the first game, really, this year, that the boards would have been the determining factor in the game."

Said Dixon: "The rebounding is what we came in here to do. We talked about getting 15 offensive rebounds and we got 16. We need to finish some more, but we got the ball inside and did what we wanted to do on a regular basis. It just seemed we didn't get enough finishes out of it.''

The Orange came into Saturday's game leading the ACC in offensive rebounding percentage. Syracuse was grabbing a startling 44 percent of the caroms that came off its offensive glass in its four previous ACC games.

The Panthers limited SU to a total of four offensive rebounds. Baye Moussa Keita grabbed two of them.

SU forward C.J. Fair called the Orange's lack of production on the offensive glass "a difference-maker." The Panthers, at the other end, grabbed 16 out of a possible 36 rebounds on their offensive backboards. Zanna said Pitt players resolved to take good shots, but were determined to get to the glass once they missed.

"We weren't getting good position," SU center Rakeem Christmas said. "We were like a half-second late to getting the rebounds."

"It was very tough," said Fair, whose six rebounds led the Orange. "It took everything out of you just to get a rebound. When you got a rebound, it was like 'Wow, is it supposed to be this hard?' They know how to get good position, that's the main thing. And they're strong. Once they get position, it's hard to push Pittsburgh around. You gotta fight, hope for a long rebound."